Amendments to the law on protecting children from information harmful to their health and development

Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law On Amendments to Federal Law On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation.

July 31, 2012

10:00

The federal law is aimed at improving the mechanism of protecting children from information that may harm their health and (or) development, and provides for changes in federal laws On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development, On Communication and On Information, Information Technology and Information Protection.

The law stipulates the procedure for placing a symbol and (or) a text message on limiting the dissemination of information that may be harmful to children’s health and (or) their development among children of a specified age group by the producers and (or) disseminators of such information.

The law applies to the dissemination of information via information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, in places accessible to children. In particular, it envisages that access to such information is granted by an individual or an entity providing Internet access in such places (except for service providers that have written contracts for the provision of telecommunications services), provided they ensure administrative and organisational measures, technology, software and hardware to protect children from information harmful to their health and (or) development.

At the same time, in order to limit access to websites containing information whose dissemination is prohibited in the Russian Federation, the federal law provides for the establishment of a Unified Register of Domain Names, Universal Page Selectors and Internet Addresses that Allow for the Identification of Websites Containing Information whose Dissemination is Prohibited in the Russian Federation.

The federal law partially changes the procedure for examining information products. The right to initiate such examination will be granted to legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, public associations and individuals without recourse to the authorised federal body of executive power.